More Icelandgate

Two days ago I reported on Trausti Jónsson of the Icelandic Met Office reversing his long established complaints about NASA/NCDC temperature adjustments in Iceland. After being a vocal critic of the adjustments for years, he suddenly reversed roles and allowed himself to be used in a Canberra Times hit piece on Senator Malcolm Roberts, who had asked Gavin Schmidt for an explanation of the adjustments being made in Iceland. Apparently progressives don’t believe that Senators should be allowed to ask questions of public servants.

“During this early period there was a large daytime bias in the temperature data from Iceland as presented in this publication,” which accounted for much of the “discrepancy” at Teigarhorn and less so at Vestmannaeyjar, Mr Jonsoon said.

For the latter station, it was relocated in October 1921 to a higher elevation. “Comparative measurements at both sites have shown that the later location is about 0.7 degrees Celsius colder than the former – this relocation has to be ‘adjusted’ for,” he said.

“I assure you that these adjustments are absolutely necessary and well founded although the finer details of the resulting series shown in your letter differ slightly from my own version,” he told Senator Roberts.

Dr Schmidt said the Arctic was “not so much” the target of data critics.

That was quite a whopper. But for now let’s look at the Vestmanneyia station more closely. How does a 1921 station shift explain that many of the NCDC adjustments after 1921 are just as large or larger than before 1921? The 1926 adjustment was just as large as the 1917 adjustment. The explanation given in the Canberra Times provides no answers for the massive post-1921 adjustments. It was just blowing smoke.

BTW. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Looks like I’ll be home.Picture is of an M-1937 field range in use during WW II in Europe. This was the most common range used in WW II field kitchens in all theaters where there were large US Army, Marine, or Seabee units. The stove used gasoline as the fuel but by all reports, if properly maintained, did an excellent job. If not properly maintained the thing could blow up or burn up. It came complete with every type of pan, pot, tray, and utensils needed neatly packed inside of it. It had a cook top and could bake or roast or broil.

Notice the Turkeys back then weren’t dressed and don’t have quite the meat and especially the breasts we’re used to seeing in our store bought birds today.

Good Generals did all they could to see that every man in their command got a hot turkey dinner on Thanksgiving and that even went for the men on the front line if at all possible. Though often the guys on the line in the most dangerous areas ended up with a cold Turkey sandwich instead of a meal with all the trimmings. On Thanksgiving of 1944 troops in many commands in Europe were also supplied with a goodly amount of wine, cognac, brandy, beer, or even champagne from the vast hoards of the stuff the Germans had kept and that had been “liberated”. It was a relief for most of the troops who were already freezing their butts off because they did not have winter clothing. From the fall of 1944 through the winter despite the heavy a deadly fighting at terrible places like Metz, the Huertgen Forest, and the Battle of Bulge with their atrocious casualties, cold injuries and in particular trench foot would cause far more casualties in the US Army than enemy weapons. The lack of winter clothing was completely preventable and I believe the greatest single fundamental failure of SHAEF during WW II.

Want to see a screencap of Iceland metoffice page “Past temperature conditions in Iceland”? I knew what was going to happen after Jonsson-Homewood discussion was made public in WUWT in 2012 and saved the whole page. Original page disappeared just WEEKS after that. Coincidence? Ha!

Love that picture RAH. The military makes some pretty clever, useful devices.

In Vietnam, we used to use a 55-gallon drum, on an elevated platform, as a source for our shower water, and the Army had a neat little diesel-fueled water heater that dropped right down into the barrel.

The water heater was a straight pipe about 4 inches in diameter, one end of which was in the air, above the water level a few inches. The other end of the straight pipe had a hollow donut-shaped section on the end which sat at the bottom of the 55-gallon drum.

A little valve situated above the straight pipe would drip diesel fuel down center of the straight pipe, and into the donut-shaped ring, at a controlled rate, where it would burn and heat the water. I was very impressed with this neat, simple invention. We had a tent heater in Germany that worked on pretty much the same principle. Works great. Simple. Almost impossible to break. That’s what you want in the military.

The only question I missed on my E-5 promotion board was “What is an ERDlator. Hell, I just had to answer that I had no idea!Turns out it is a big mobile unit on a truck that sucks up contaminated water and makes it potable. They can suck nasty water from a shell hole from one end and from other out comes perfectly potable and chlorinated water.

Later I found out what it was but I also found out that the operation of an ERDlator is a function of the engineers and not medics. Medics only test the water to ensure it’s potable before distribution.

Now I was an SF medic. The likely hood of us ever coming across an ERDlator was pretty slim. So I didn’t feel bad at all about missing the question.

This passage from a description of the United States Marine Corps Engineer Battalion illustrates the ERDLator’s significance:

“One of the most important units was the water supply platoon. This platoon operated…water purification plants called Erdalators [sic] that could remove silt and suspended matter, filter, and purify even contaminated stream water. Producing from 1-3,000 gallons (about 4,000 to 12,000 liters) per day — the larger number was achieved using separate large rubberized settling tanks — one unit could adequately supply an infantry battalion under adverse conditions”

There’s a movie called “You’re in the Army Now” that is centered around combat engineers operating an ERDlator water purification unit, and shows good pictures of the actual equipment. The wiki above has some pictures, too.

Despite the fact that distribution of cellulose was controlled during WW II because it was used in gunpowder and certain explosives when processed into nitrocellulose, Hollywood still managed to produce a prodigious number of films during the war.

Had to go get some stuff we had stored at a family business and found some pics from what now seems like a different life time. The pics were taken between Jan and Apr of 1984 when I was deployed as member of a SF mobile training team consisting of two A teams and a B team to Lebanon when things were not going well there. This first one is of me extracting a took from a Lebanese soldier. I probably pulled close to 50 teeth while there. Believe it or not it’s hard work.

I’m glad you got to stay home this Thanksgiving, RAH. All the best to you and your family.

Thanks for posting the Lebanon pictures. I was once at the “extractee” end of pulling a molar that turned out to be healthy and not a problem (it’s a convoluted story from another time). It took over an hour and it was hard work for the dentist.

Deciding to extract or not to extract a tooth is not always easy but it is easy to screw it up. I pulled a couple that I regretted doing. We had no “hand piece” which is what they call a dentists drill. The choice was either clean the carious lesion with hand tools an use IRM to fill it, extract it, or leave it alone. Eventually I learned to only extract when the pain was debilitating or the tooth was obviously going to be a serious problem.

And when you get down to it that is the hardest part of any medical art. The more you learn the less aggressive you get in your treatments.

This one is with my Lebanese “Ranger” patrol. Though we trained them in all aspects of soldiering we were there to train them in LRRP (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrolling) or IOW deep penetration behind enemy lines to gather intelligence.

We received rocket, mortar, and heavy artillery fire at different times at our training area on the first ridge line over looking Beirut. This is what the crater looks like from a Katyusha rocket. The warhead makes the crater but the end of the rocket imbeds it’s self into that crater. This one came in about 100 meters from where we slept.

Yes it was. It was also a very frustrating time for us and for me personally. One gets tired of using the carrot and stick method to get compliance. When the Marines pulled out of the underground bunker they had made from the debris of the building where some 240 of them and other service members had died we got a big carrot in the form of a couple of tons of demolitions. But we also lost our LDF “Rangers” for a period when they went down in the city to fight for Beirut International airport. During part of that period when everything was in flux we were used as a reaction team for the US Embassy and the Ambassadors residence. We also went down into the city to find American citizens and move them to the embassy for evacuation and provided security for Rumsfeld staff during his visit as Reagans special envoy. I went through three Lebanese “Ranger” squad leaders before I found one that actually wanted to learn and would follow instructions. He is the one shown in the last picture.

I will never forget working down in the city. Had to make a trip to the US Embassy that was then cohabitating with the British embassy and guarded by a MAU (Marine Assault Unit). Two of us walked up to their sandbagged check point and those young Marines looked at us as if we were from aliens from another world. As far as they were concerned everything outside of their perimeter was no mans land. We on the other hand felt sorry for them because there they were just stationary targets. I guess it’s all in what one gets used to but I sure felt I had a better and safer deal than they did.